Improvement in oil-cans



. Oi Can.

No. 121,545. Patented Dec.5,1871.

UNITED STATEs GILBERT STEWART PRIOR, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN OIL-CANS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,545, dated December 5, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GILBERT STEWART PRIOR, of Boston, Suffolk county, State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Oil- Oan, of which the following is a specification:

The nature of my invention is that ofa device whereby the oil discharged from a can by its inversion and not used, or oil leaking from the screw aperture of the can, but, by reason of capillary action, not quitting the same, may be prevented from dripping down upon and from the sides of the can, or being presented to the hands at the next occasion of use of the can; and the object is to prevent the inconvenience of soiling of the hands or of objects upon whichthe can may be placed and the loss of the oil.

In the drawing, A is my oil-can, which is, in general terms, in the shape of the frustum of a hollow cone whose sides are corrugated hori- ,zontally, and Whose apex end is upward, and

its base closed by a bottom, which bottom is made to spring (as with all oil-cans so as to diminish the cubic area of its internal dimensions and thus facilitate the discharge of the contained oil.) B B is another frustum of a hollow cone, called the tunnel-cone, whose apex end is downward, and is firmly fastened to the upper end of the cone A A. Inside of the tunnel-cone B B is another tunnel-shaped device, 0 0, called the guard-cone, of smaller diameter, with its sides running parallel to the sides of the tunnel-cone B B, to which cone it is firmly held by the inverted annular spout D D, which is soldered or brazed to the upper ends of both the tunnel-cone and the guard-cone. E is a hollow cylinder of small diameter, called the escape-spout, and is fastened to the inside of the guard-cone G 0, near the top of the same, its bore communicating with the hollow space between the guardcone and the tunnel-cone. This escape-spout proceeds horizontally toward the axial center of the whole device till its other end, which is left open, comes close to, without coming in contact with, the nose F of the oil-can. (Sometimes I cause the end of the escape-spout to enter into the bore or hollow of the nose F.) This nos'e F does not differ from those in common use, and may be described as the frustum of a hollow cone whose apex end is upward, and whose diameter is equal to about seven seventy-seconds of its length, (seven-sixteenths and four and onehalf inches.) At its lower end this nose F is furnished with a hollow male screw, which fits into a female screw borne by a cover firmly fastened to the top of the cone A A, which cone forms the body of the can.

The operation of the device is as follows: Removing the nose F, I fill the can with oil (which process is greatly facilitated by the tunnel-shape of the tunnel and guard-cones) and replace the nose by screwing it in. Using the can in the usual manner, I find that at the point of junction of the two screws it will often leak the oil. This leakage, however, is prevented from dropping down when the can is inverted by beingintercepted by the annular spout D D and the tunnel and guard-cones. When the can is placed upon its base the oil which has leaked runs down upon the cover of the can, in which the female screw is situated. Were there no means of escape for this leaked oil, by the unscrewing of the nose F, the chamber would be likely to fill up, when it would become inoperative, a result to be averted only by care and troublesome attention on the part of the user, were it not for my device of the escape-spout E, which, when the can is inverted for use, conducts the leaked oil to the outside of the nose F, where it meets and runs along the outer surface (or inner surface, if the bores of the spout and nose communicate) of the nose. Thus the leaked oil never defiles the outer surface of the can, and the outside of my whole can, presenting the form of the frustums of two cones joined at the point of their smallest diameters, a finger of the operator being placed on each side of the can at the point of junction, the whole device is handled without defilement of the hands; and I sometimes construct my tunnel-cone in the shape of a hollow cylinder, or in other shape, and furnish the top of the same at the outside with a lateral projection of any shape, so that the whole device may be lifted by two fingers, placed one at each side.

What I claim herein as of my own invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

An oil-can having the tunnel and guard-cones B (J, annular spout D, and escape-spout E, substantially as and for the purpose et forth.

GILBERT STEWART PRIOR.

Witnesses:

LEMUEL P. JENKs,

S. W. HARMON. (136) 

